Users browsing the internet generally view one web page at a time. To browse between websites, a user can generally do one of the following: remember and enter the URL in the web browser, go to a search engine, type in a search query, and click on one of the links that appears, click on a hyperlink on a page they are currently viewing, or retrieve a web page from a bookmark they have previously entered. Each of these methods has their drawbacks.
For entry of a URL into the URL bar of a web browser, an exact URL must be remembered. If a user forgets the URL, which can be quite long, this method cannot be used. For browsing based on use of a search engine, the user need not remember the exact URL. However, leaving the current page, browsing to a search engine, entering the query, and selecting the appropriate link takes time and can inconvenience the user.
To browse to a webpage using a hyperlink, the webpage a user is currently viewing must contain such a hyperlink. Thus, while this is a quick method to browse to another page, the number of pages which can be browsed to is usually very limited. Finally, for bookmarks, the user must have previously bookmarked that page.
A wide variety of tools are presently available to assist the user in quickly browsing to a desired web page, and to provide additional relevant content to a user, but each has their drawbacks.
For example, search tools exist which allow users to enter a search query without needing to browse to a search engine's web page. Tools such as various search engines' toolbars (e.g. Google Toolbar, Yahoo! Toolbar, Bing Bar, and others) are permanently displayed in web browser programs and provide a location for a user to type in a search query. More recently, such functionality has been built into web browsers themselves, and searches can even be performed from the URL bar of a web browser. These tools provide quick access to individual search engines, but have their own drawbacks. For example, they are not context sensitive, and will remain visible to a user regardless of what page the user is viewing. Additionally, they are generally limited in functionality in that they will only provide search results from a single specific search engine.
To provide additional relevant content, some search engines such as Google will allow a user to request specific types of hyperlinks, such as links to images, videos, maps, and the like. Some search engines will also provide suggested search queries, or will allow a user to determine the source from which search results are drawn, but will not provide specific links determined to be highly relevant to a search query (aside from the search results). Further, these items must generally be manually accessed and will not appear automatically when it is determined that a user would be likely to require such assistance.
What is needed, therefore, is a computer implemented method for providing access to content which helps a user to quickly browse to websites which are relevant to the user's current browsing activities.